Many of us, lesser mortals, cannot keep our feet on the ground and our heads on our shoulders after we “succeed”. A good job, a nice designation, a few accolades and some material acquisitions change our accents and attitudes, and pretty soon the fire of ambition in the belly burns out, as we are consigned to the dustbin of history.

Consider Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar who has known nothing but success all his life of 40 and 169 days:

A Ranji Trophy century on debut, a Duleep Trophy century on debut, an Irani Trophy century on debut—and a magnificent, near-spotless 24-year career of 198 Test matches and 463 one-day internationals yielding 34,373 runs, 100 centuries, 163 fifties, 156 catches and 199 wickets. And millions of fans.

The cricketing achievements of Sachin are obvious: he brought hope and expectation to a nation short of heroes, he brought pride and prestige to the Indian achievement, strength and solidity to the middle-order. But it is the other side of his personality, his personal life, which is an object lesson for most of us, which is almost all of us, not blessed with his kind of talent.

Tendulkar brought middle-class decency and civility to the crease and beyond it. In his personal life, in dealing with fans and followers, in dealing with his superstardom, in dealing with his seniors, juniors and elders, Tendulkar showed a rare ability to not let his arrogance show and to yet carry on zealously.

Question: Now that Sachin Tendulkar has announced that he will end his international career two Test matches from now, where does his future lie?

5 comments

Politics. Where else and what else can be an option. What has been greater than his cricketing talent is his talent to bamboozle the public and attempt establishing a dynasty. Therefore seeking significant public office via politics should be easy Peary for this “great Mughal”.

Where does the future of 65 million Indian NIDES (nutritional immuno defficiency syndrome) suffering poor children lie could be more relevant than Sachin Tendulkar’s future who is defficient in nothing except the Bharat Ratna. Even Mahatma Gandhi was never given his due glorification for what he did for the entire Indian populace. When do we grow up? Get out of the sunken mindset. Let us study how many children are on the roads today by idolizing this great (!!!!) cricket legend with big dreams of replicating Sachin and kicking the academics. Grow up guys! Sachin is past and he will happily live forever , hereafter too!!

Tandulker’s contribution to the Cricketing World is Enormous! Last week Agarkar retired. With his retirement and subsequent Tandulkar’s retirement, the KAR’s of Bombay are no more in Indian cricket. We have had Gavaskar, Wadekar, Solkar, Manjrekar Jr Sr, Hardiker,Parker, Phadkar, Rangnekar, Nimbelkar, Vengsarkar, Sivalkar and many more. So the end of KAR dynasty is in the offing!
The KAR’S have made enormous contribution to Indian Cricket. It was said that you must be a KAR to play for India!